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Trampolene’s Artwork of Youth

By:Yuni / 12 May 2016

With a lot of new bands emerging pretty much daily nowadays, to stand out isn’t as easy as it used to be. To come up with something that makes you different from others and have a your own stamp. Trampolene doesn’t seem to have that problem, though. Mixing a bit of poetry or the more sophisticated term: spoken word, with their music, Jack, Wayne and Rob makes them easily noticeable. The band started with, “A couple of teenagers fighting the magnificent fight against boredom and dreaming of getting out”, according to frontman Jack Jones. So a name from a Julian Cope song was chosen because Jack read his book, “Head On”, and his life was changed.

Jack is the person responsible behind most, if not all, of the poems. Although, he claimed that it wasn’t something that they do on purpose. “It’s another expression and something that just happened without truly knowing why”, says Jack. Speaking of poems, what was the first poem you wrote? “It was Artwork of Youth – although I didn’t think of it as a poem at the time, it was like a list / stream of consciousness and I only realised when I spoke it out loud to myself that it was a poem of sorts.”

It’s also quite an informative, and also explicit, stream of consciousness – is it all true? “Yeah, I’m afraid so”, he said. “Some names have been bleeped to protect the innocent, though.” And if you were able to go back in time, what would you tell your young self, trying to survive his youth? “I’d say, “FFS, calm down boy.” Yeah – I’d probably say the same thing to my young self … and myself from a week ago. Anyways. What is youth if it’s not without struggles? What was yours? Something that you were facing growing that you thought you’d never get through but you prove yourself wrong. “Probably reading as I am dyslexic and being around other people as I was so shy – I hated reading and thought it was something I would never be able to do. Now I always have a book on the go.”

Having a song called “Tom Hardy” also helps if you want to get people’s attention, because, well … it’s Tom Hardy. But as it turns out, the song isn’t actually about him. “It’s fictitious. I mean, he’s every boy’s healthy man crush”, Jack explained (and also every healthy girl’s crush and imaginary boyfriend). “But the song is fictitious, with a few tales from Swansea life thrown in.” So, if you were to meet him in person, you’d have nothing to say to him? “Probably not – I don’t know what to I’d say, I wouldn’t to say anything so … I suppose I’d just leave him alone which is probably what he would want.” With already a few EPs out, any plans for an album? “Yes! A big album – that one album … you know, the one that changes your life and the lives of your friends? Hopefully.”

I’ve recently decided to put something Jack said on my “Favourite Quote” list. Something that, according to him, “Was just one of those things. I wrote it late one night on a Facebook post after discussing it with Wayne (the bass player): What would be the worst thing, other than cream pie, that could throw at someone?” (This already sounds like the usual, deep, somewhat philosophical nightly conversation between my friends and me, by the way).

“So”, he continued, “Without thinking, I put in on Facebook and people made it a “thing”, which is cool by me.” And the quote was, “Don’t listen to anyone who puts your dream down. Throw curry at their face.”
Because, you could never go wrong with optimism and curry, guys. Never.